“Travel is more than seeing nature or colour”

His website is called “Tony the Traveller” and Curaçao is his 107th destination. The name perfectly describes his main interest: travelling. With his backpack he travels around the world and gets lots of help along the way. This is necessary, because Tony was born blind and 80 percent deaf. What a guy!

But… why travel when you can’t see anything? His answer: “Why not? My father travelled a lot before my birth and told enthusiastic stories about it. It intrigued me. When I was eleven I went to boarding school 300 kilometres from home. I was pretty independent and so I learned to recognise many sounds. Also, I had many friends who were not disabled. At sixteen I went to study for a few weeks in America and I got a taste of travelling.”

At school he learned his perspective on disability. “Yes, there were children who had it worse than me, you see things relativity. My best friend had a muscle-wasting disease and was slowly dying.”

How does he experience travels without seeing? “Travel is not only to do with seeing the landscape or colours. It is also about the people and their culture, how they live, their music and local food. In the course of time my sense of smell has also improved. Because I see nothing, there is nothing to distract me. For sighted people it is of course different. You learn to fully use your other senses.”

Tony is travelling alone, but is always helped by other people to find his way. “It’s also the case that I do a lot of research on the internet before I set off. I have a speaking computer. Everything I touch is expressed for me. I frequently stay with local people and if that is not possible I stay in a hostel or go camping. I ask people on the street where I can go. In countries where I do not speak the language, this can sometimes be a problem, but it is usually somehow possible to find someone who speaks English.”

Once he was robbed: “I had my tent set up in the Canadian countryside, along a gravel path so I could find it easily. But I found my tent and everything was gone. Two boys helped me to report it and according to the police the culpit was a bear. I asked if I they could make an arrest,” he laughs. Every three months, Tony goes back home, because of essential drugs in connection with a kidney transplant he underwent in 2008. “In addition, my girlfriend does not like it when I stay away longer,” he laughs. “She is blind. Very occasionally she travels too, but she prefers more comfortable travel.”

Tony has completed his education and six years ago published the book “Seeing the World My Way.” Tomorrow he leaves for Bonaire and from there the next stops are Aruba and Panama. He wants to end this trip in Cancun (Mexico). His goal is to visit every country on the globe and he is already some way there. India and Japan are still on his list.